America's top-selling toy gets "anatomically correct" brother
Toys aren't just for kids, it seems, with more than 30,000 industry participants, entrepreneurs and adults who never grew up flocking to New York City for the annual American International Toy Fair.
In addition to fidget spinners and Hatchimals, the four-day event, which runs through Tuesday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, offers a glimpse of what will be hitting store shelves soon and what manufacturers hope will be the must-have toy of 2018.
Competing for a piece of the action in an industry that generated $21 billion in sales last year, according to the NPD Group's retail tracking service, are known industry giants such as Hasbro, along with a slew of startups.
Looking to continue its success with the top-selling toy of 2017, the L.O.L. Surprise! Doll Assortment, privately held MGA Entertainment used the event to deliver a birth announcement of sorts, saying it was adding brothers to the family. The boys, dubbed Punk Boi and Lil Punk Boi, are described by MGA as "anatomically correct" new members to the Rock Club clan.
Contacted about the meaning of the phrase, a spokesperson for MGA Entertainment clarified the assertion, saying that just Punk Boi is anatomically correct, while his younger sibling is not.
"The L.O.L Surprise! dolls all have water features where they cry, spit, tinkle or color change. Our Punk Boi doll can also tinkle, through a feature suggestive of boy parts," the spokesperson said in an email.
Hasbro plans to market an array of games and toys tied to Saban's Power Rangers, the toymaker said Friday of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit series that came out in 1993 and remains one of the longest-running kids' live-action series in TV history.
Australia's Moose Toys could have an answer for parents not yet ready to yield to pleas for a pet. The company's Scruff-a-Love give kids a small, unloved fur ball of fluff that they can wash, dry and otherwise look after like a real rescue animal.
